I had bivied a bit beyond the Blaueishut and went up the scree slope at 06:30, then over the Kleinkalter and on to the summit in about 2:45 h. Only met one other person going up. A tougher hike than I expected, with the last hour climbing up rocks with hands. No need to secure though. Went down the same way, although lots of people seemed to do the tour, going down to the Hintersee.

After Blaueis Hütte we managed to climb the first wall, then at a point 20 minutes later the sad decision to return was made as we lacked any equipment but had instead big backpacks which made me feel unsafe... It was still a nice experience.

Did this one again with my father in August, probably close to 18 years since we did it the first time. Beautiful day and a great trip. It took about four hours from the Blaueishutte but we were stopping a bit and taking pictures and generally just admiring the scenery. Probably my favorite mountain in Germany.

Did this when I was six years old with my father when he was stationed in Germany. Of all the hiking and stuff we did in Germany I remember this was the one that stuck out in my mind because of the two UIAA II sections. The one right above the Blaueishutte and on the ridge. I vividly remember climbing into the fog up what to me seemed like a sheer vertical cliff :) I went back to Hochkalter with a friend in the summer of 2002 and we didn't go all the way to the top cause he didn't feel comfortable on the second UIAA II section...even though I did it twenty years ago. I even climbed it twice to show him it was easy.

It took us about 2 hours to reach the crevasse (700m height) and 2,5 hours more to the summit (200m height) because traversing the crevasse was a bit tricky and finding the route up to the summit was not always easy.

We didn't need our rope but used it to abseil the little shelf on the way down to Schöner Fleck - so we didn't carry it for nothing :-)

Despite being relatively late, perfect autumn conditions (practically no snow on the ridge). Nice climb, the two UIAA grade II sections are short, not very exposed and solid. The rest is walking and easy scrambling. Nice views all around, especially on Watzmann.